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NBC’s New Late-Night Lineup Dominates Its Broadcast Competition

Apr 3, 2014  •  Post A Comment

The Peacock is strutting its feathers in late-night these days, as NBC continues to crow about the ratings results its rebuilt late-night lineup is delivering.

The flagship "Tonight Show," having recently been handed over to Jimmy Fallon, has been beating the combined totals for its two chief time slot rivals in the key 18-49 demo. For the week of March 24-28, the sixth week of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” the show averaged a 1.33 rating in adults 18-49, topping the combined scores of CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” (0.53) and ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (0.65).

The 1.33 average comes within 1% of the 1.35 for the previous week of "Tonight," which was the show’s best week in the demo since Fallon’s second week.

The network notes that Thursday and Friday CBS programming is excluded from these averages due to NCAA overruns. Additionally, Friday’s “Kimmel” was an encore.

The lead-out from Fallon, “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” delivered a three-week high in the 18-49 demo for the week of March 24-28, and topped both Letterman and Kimmel despite starting an hour later. Week five of the 12:35 a.m. ET program scored a 0.70 average rating in the demo, growing 4% week-to-week in 18-49 while also rising 8% in total viewers.

"Head-to head, Meyers outdelivered CBS’s 'Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson' by a 79% margin (0.70 vs. 0.39) and ABC’s 'Nightline' from 12:30-1 a.m. by 95% (0.80 vs. 0.41 for that head-to-head half-hour)," NBC reported.

The network added: "Last week’s 0.70 rating in 18-49 and 1.995 million viewers overall for Meyers were up versus the prior week’s 0.67 in 18-49 and 1.854 million viewers overall, and are highs since the show’s second week on the air (0.71 in 18-49, 2.073 million viewers overall for the week of March 3-7)."

The Friday installment of “Late Night” last week was a rebroadcast, while all five nights of prior weeks were originals.

Both Fallon and Meyers are improving their time slot performance from a year ago. "Compared with the same week last year, Fallon was up 75% versus 'Tonight’s' 18-49 rating (with a 1.33 rating, 6 share in adults 18-49 vs. the year-ago 0.76/3) and up 22% in total viewers (4.306 million vs. 3.541 million)," the network notes.

Meyers has also improved on a year ago, when Fallon was holding down the 12:35 slot. "Meyers scored gains versus the same weeks last year, up 43% versus 'Late Night' results for the year-ago week in 18-49 (0.70/4 vs. 0.49/3) and up 20% in total viewers (1.995 million vs. 1.663 million)," NBC reported.

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